Аnd he remained in the desert for forty days...

“At once the Spirit drove him out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him” (Mark 1:12-13). The Gospel according to Mark, and the other Synoptic books of the Gospel do not tell us much about the forty days spent by Jesus in the desert, where He was driven by the Holy Spirit. But this fact does not make the event any less significant. On the contrary, the brief narrative brought to the life of the Church a most important period of penance and fasting called Lent. The period, when in fervent praying and meditation, we follow our Lord in the wilderness. In our souls we hear: “Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment (Joel 2:13).

Lent is a time for our spiritual renewal and the rebirth of nature, because in the Holy Land, it always falls in the period of spring. And following Jesus into the desert, we find there the beauty of God's creation, which helps us to comprehend even more the greatness of the Creator. For as the prophet said: "The wilderness and the dry land, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose" (Isaiah 35:1). In his homily of March 4, 2016, Father Cantalamessa said that “the word of God cannot be articulated except by the breath of God, the Holy Spirit”. We open our heart in repentance and we wish to purify our soul and fill it with the Holy Spirit, because only in this way will we be able to see "the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God" (Isaiah 35:2b) and get closer to the mystery of the resurrection and eternal life.

To watch a video clip “In the Desert” here